Thursday, November 22, 2018

Our Simple Bodacious Thanksgiving Was Absolutely Wonderful


This past week has honestly been a blur. Over the weekend, I caught the "plague" that Lisa had. She still has a bit of lingering congestion. I worked full days, but it was quite a challenge. On Monday, I trudged through minor fever, aches, chills, and congestion.

On Tuesday, I felt much worse. I sat at the kitchen table in the early morning hours with the best of intentions. Coffee. Enthusiasm. A box of tissues. Cold medicine in my system. But, by 12:15, I threw in the white flag.

I crawled into bed.

All of the kids got into bed with me. Snuggled up against my body. They warmed me up. I felt comforted. That feeling alone was enough to send me and the kids into a slumber that lasted for over 2 hours. It was the best therapy ever.

Yesterday, I woke up feeling a bit better. The fever had broken. I no longer had aches and the chills. I managed to get a few things done around the house. That included baking a couple of sugar pumpkins for our Thanksgiving pumpkin pie.

We slept in a bit this morning. For the first time in years, we had no plans for Thanksgiving. I put my annual invitation out there welcoming those who had no place to go for Thanksgiving or had fallen on hard times. No one replied back.

We didn't receive a single invite to join anyone at their home for Thanksgiving.

We didn't have any guests that would be joining us.

It was just Lisa, the kids, and myself.

We stayed in our lounge clothes all day.

Lisa volunteered to be my Sous-Chef.

We took our time preparing all of the fixings. We did it together. We had a lot of great conversations and laughs.

Between assisting in the kitchen, Lisa caught up on laundry. Our washing machine broke on Friday. We bought a new one the following day. It was delivered yesterday.

While we waited for the turkey to finish cooking, Lisa relaxed on the sofa with the kids for a couple of hours while I caught up on work stuff.

Our dinner was ready right around 4 p.m.

Lisa made the kids their Thanksgiving dinner. They ate with gusto.

We sat at the kitchen table to eat our dinner and played a few rounds of cards. The kids got extra roasted turkey during that time.

They love roasted turkey and chicken. 

After eating, we cleaned up and Lisa ran over to our neighbor's house to take care of our fur-nieces.

The evening ended with family snuggle time on the sofa. We ate pie and watched The Christmas Chronicles on Netflix.

Great movie with lots of feel goods. 

After the movie ended, Lisa and I talked for a bit. The gist of the conversation was about how incredible Thanksgiving was this year for us.

Don't get me wrong, the Thanksgivings we've had in the past have all been wonderful. We've shared them with people who had no place to go. We've shared our table with family and friends. One year, we even had Thanksgiving at a friend's house.

This year, it was exceptional. Simple. 

Dinner didn't need to be made and served at a certain time. We were able to stay in our lounge clothes. No bras. No rushing around to get showers in before the arrival of guests.

There was no stress or sense of urgency to get this or that done.

None of our kids needed to be gated at various intervals. When Lisa and I ate, all of the kids were at our feet. We fed them roasted turkey from the table and no one complained or gave us the look. 

We didn't have that extra step during cleanup of packing up leftovers for people to take home. We threw everything in the fridge, wiped down the counters, stove, and table. That was it. Done.

We ate dessert on the sofa with all of the kids snuggled with us under cozy blankets. We watched a movie.

That was our simple bodacious Thanksgiving.

And, we loved it!

I tucked Lisa and the kids into bed about a half hour ago. We both have to work tomorrow.

I've got a lot of catching up to do in the Bodacious DIY Dog Mom Workshop after being sick this week.

The Bodacious 12 Days of Christmas begins on Monday!

I'm still dealing with the horrible congestion, but that's manageable.

We hope that all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day! Whether you spent it with a bazillion friends and family or had a quiet day like us, we hope that it was enjoyable and great memories were made! 




No comments:

Post a Comment